Building a strong presence in the international financial market with its young age, now, the CEO of Shinhan Securities Vietnam (SSV) – Mr. Han Bok Hee believes in the potential and strong momentum of the Vietnam stock market. As a person with many dreams, he always carries concerns and expectations about the development journey of SSV as well as the Vietnam stock market.
 CEO of Shinhan Securities Vietnam (SSV) – Mr. Han Bok Hee
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Using one keyword to describe the achievements of Shinhan Securities Vietnam in 2023, which word would he choose?
Shinhan has achieved many successes, and I would choose the word “overcome”. In 2023, like the Vietnam stock market in general, Shinhan Securities Vietnam also faced many challenges, but the company overcame difficulties and turned them into opportunities. In the past year, the company continued to expand its operations and achieved significant achievements.
Although Shinhan Securities Vietnam is a new face in the Vietnam stock market, with a strong financial foundation and extensive experience in the international market, we always strive to provide the best services and the most competitive prices. Prioritizing the safety and convenience of investors, SSV standardizes business processes and products to achieve the highest level of excellence.
In terms of the financial picture, Shinhan Securities has overcome difficult conditions and situations to rise and is on a positive development trajectory. SSV’s operating revenue in 2023 reached VND 514.6 billion, a 62% increase compared to the previous year.
In which, brokerage business revenue increased by 41% compared to the previous year, reaching VND 47.8 billion. SSV’s after-tax profit also reached VND 145 billion, a 43% increase compared to the previous year. This is the highest level of profit in the history of SSV’s operations.
The total asset scale increased significantly, by 65% compared to the same period, reaching nearly VND 6.6 trillion. This is the highest level since SSV started operating.
The outstanding loans for the year exceeded VND 3,000 billion, double the amount at the beginning of the year. This is a bright spot in the company’s business activities in the Vietnam stock market in recent years and a positive turning point for this year and the years to come.
In addition, the investment banking sector has also maintained significant development achievements.
Continuing with the Vietnam stock market, Shinhan Securities Vietnam has and is developing a strategy to consolidate its position as well as create differences here?
In Vietnam, SSV has achieved a completely different position in the stock market with modern Fintech technology, a multi-platform multi-utility trading system with high security and good customer service.
We aim to attract retail investors with low transaction fees and competitive margin lending rates. Besides, we provide specialized trading platforms for each customer segment, such as new investors or professional investors. The new trading system is deployed on multiple platforms such as the mobile app version (MTS), web trading browser (WTS), and home trading computer (HTS) with many outstanding features, bringing customers a positive, safe, secure, and high-speed trading experience.
In addition, SSV always aims to build diverse services and products based on the “One Shinhan” ecosystem along with Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Financial Company, Shinhan Insurance Company, and Shinhan DS Company, promising to provide customers with the most comprehensive financial solutions.
We take technology as the main positioning in the race between securities companies. Shinhan Securities operates in the Vietnam stock market with the desire to bring customers excellent investment experiences and benefits with innovative solutions. Providing a digital financial platform with significant improvements for easier and more convenient use of services.
Building a strong presence in the international financial market with its young age, now Mr. Han Bok Hee believes in the potential and strong momentum of the Vietnam stock market
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At the same time, SSV continuously has many attractive programs, bringing benefits to customers when opening accounts and trading securities. With the goal of developing together with customers, the company always strives to provide the most attractive product packages and improve the quality of services to meet the needs of customers.
The Vietnam stock market will grow bigger and stronger
What notable changes have there been in the global and Vietnam stock markets during the many years you have been dedicated to the securities industry?
The Vietnam stock market has changed a lot, and in a short time at Shinhan Securities Vietnam, I have seen many things. The market scale is expanding day by day. People are paying more attention to the stock market, especially young people.
The Vietnam stock market will continue to grow along with the growth of the global market. This is easily understood for a developing economy, along with the middle class and urbanization increasing, continuous growth in the investment sector, especially in the stock market, will be very clear. The stock account rate of Vietnam accounts for only about 7-8% of the population, much lower than many countries in the world and in the region, but this rate is predicted to increase rapidly in the next few years.
In recent times, SSV has made efforts to enhance communication activities targeting young investors – the group of new, dynamic and future investors of the market.
Together with the “Shinhan” brand, “Shinhan Securities” is increasingly known and trusted as a choice for long-term investment journeys.
What are your expectations for the Vietnam stock market?
The Vietnam stock market has been operating and developing for over 20 years. At the age of 20, the Vietnamese stock market is maturing. The current market is gradually shaping itself into an effective investment channel and capital raising. Investors are increasingly accessing the stock market and the confidence in the stock market is becoming more apparent, evidenced by the increasing number of billion-dollar trading sessions. The maturity of the Vietnam market is very clear, and I have a clear vision that the market will become even larger and stronger in the next few years.
In this process, the trust of investors in the market is crucial. In order for the market to develop sustainably, I hope there will be effective mechanisms to protect the rights of investors so that they can trust to invest in stocks.
One of the prerequisites for building trust is transparency for investors. A transparent and publicly operated market will ensure fairness among investors, helping them make accurate investment decisions and attracting more and more investors to participate and stay in the market. This is how the market develops.
The second one is the quality of the market’s products. With many years of experience in the financial market, I expect the Vietnam market to have more products to provide investors with more choices. Investors always have diverse needs. The more products the market has, the more investors will access suitable financial solutions.
The upcoming KRX system will be a prerequisite for the market to achieve product diversity like markets in developed countries. I have great confidence in this.
2024, is the business environment for securities companies favorable or challenging? Does the Vietnam market have attractive points for foreign securities companies like Shinhan Securities Vietnam?
Korean investors, in general, and ourselves, in particular, have a high appreciation for investment opportunities in Vietnam. It is not only in traditional fields such as component manufacturing, electronics equipment, and banking but also in the promotion of investment in areas such as insurance, asset management, finance, and especially securities.
Shinhan sees opportunities in the Vietnam market, with a large potential and an increasing awareness of finance and securities. We will gradually demonstrate the experience of a large financial group to satisfy the needs of current and future customers.
2024 will be a turning point for a stronger development phase of Vietnam. The operation of the new trading system KRX, the upgrading of the emerging market, will bring greater expectations and improve liquidity. In this way, the group of securities companies will have a more favorable business environment and more development opportunities.
2024 has many bright spots, many opportunities for the stock market.
What is your opinion on the potential of the stock market with the prospect of implementing the KRX system and any advice for individual investors?
In 2024, the KRX system is expected to be put into operation, marking a milestone in upgrading the Vietnam stock market from a frontier market to an emerging market. Therefore, Shinhan Securities also enters 2024 with careful preparation for the new phase of the market’s development.
In the past period, SSV has completed trial steps, met the business requirements of the KRX system, and is ready to provide services to investors when the KRX system is officially launched.
Our company strives to take advantage of the opportunities that the KRX system brings and moreover, technology is an important spearhead for the company to break through in the future.
In 2024, how do you predict the stock market will behave?
I believe that the economic situation in and outside the country in 2024 will have both positive and negative aspects intertwined.
The uncertain timing of the Fed’s interest rate reduction may still pose a significant risk of economic decline or recession. Or the risks of political instability will continue to affect oil prices, increasing logistics costs, causing disruptions in the transportation of goods, and potentially causing inflation…
On the contrary, Vietnam has many bright spots. The real estate market is gradually coming out of the bottom; savings interest rates continue to remain low; export signals have recovered in the fourth quarter of 2023. These signs indicate that the difficult period has passed. Besides, FDI is also increasing well, public investment continues to be promoted as the Government is determined to quickly disburse investment capital, ensuring the positive circulation of funds…
On the other hand, Vietnam is in the final stage of the upgrade process for emerging markets. New regulations on pre-allocation may be proposed in the middle of 2024 to meet the last 2 requirements of FTSE, implying the possibility of an upgrade in the near future. The new KRX trading system is also in the final testing phase before its official launch in the middle of this year.
It is forecasted that FTSE will upgrade the Vietnam stock market no later than September 2024 or March 2025. This can significantly attract foreign capital and improve market liquidity.
For 2024, I present 2 scenarios for the Vietnam stock market.
With the base scenario, economic growth as expected, the Vietnam stock market will have better performance in 2024 with an increase of 20-30% to the range of 1,350-1,450 points, equivalent to a target PE ratio of 15x and a 15% growth rate of listed companies’ profits. The operation of the new KRX trading system, the upgrade of the emerging market FTSE will bring greater expectations, which may help the VN-Index challenge the previous peak around 1,550 points.
In the negative scenario, when the growth stimulating policies do not produce the desired results and in the context of global economic deterioration, VN-Index accumulates around the price range of 1,050 – 1,250 points to wait for positive signals from the economy.
However, investors should also note political instability along with unexpected risks from major elections in 2024, which could be a source of economic instability and affect the stock market.
Thank you very much for your sharing.
